The makers of City of Steam sent me a closed beta key, and I barely used it. My apologies! It isn't as if City of Steam was a bad game. In fact having a steam punk setting is a nice chance, and the game looks better than you'd expect a Free2Play browser game to look. There are also some interesting variations on the class/spec/talent system, with each class choosing one of three sub-classes right from the start, abilities in an ability tree, and passive talents being free choice. The reason I couldn't play City of Steam for more than a few hours was that apart from such variations, it is very much a classic MMORPG: You have your quests to descend into the sewer and kill ten rats, you have your hotkey bar combat, you have your healer, tank, and damage dealer classes/specs, everything you would expect.

I just don't want to play games like that any more for the moment. I want either MMOs that work very differently from this Progressquest type, or games that aren't MMORPGs. I can't help it, but right now an NPC that asks me to kill ten rats just makes me want to puke. I want games where what I do is fun *now*, and not a prerequisite for maybe fun later. And if MMORPGs can't offer that, I'm burned out of MMORPGs.

Anyone wanting an alternative view on City of Steam, which is a very well-written, quirky, original online RPG (it's not a full-blown MMO and doesn't claim to be) might like to take a look for themselves.

Beta keys are widely available - just google for them. There are over a thousand left at this link, just as one example

Being in Closed Beta, the content is admittedly a bit on the limited side right now; future versions will see a lot more interesting quest lines and content for players (not so much of the overtypical kill 10 X). I encourage you to check us our again in Open Beta, maybe :)